US military HQ The Pentagon has commissioned the development of a space station to carry out important experimental work, as the dawn of a new space race arrives. The new station, which will be built by the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), will assist the Federal government with training and operational space missions.<\/p>\n
The cutting-edge aerospace company announced the deal on last week in conjunction with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) but refused to disclose the top-secret project's cost.<\/p>\n
Were excited by the multi-mission nature of Shooting Star<\/p>\n
SNC's CEO Fatih Ozmen<\/p>\n
DIU, which has headquarters in the Pentagon, has a mission to \"accelerating the adoption of leading commercial technology throughout the military\".<\/p>\n
Industry insiders believe the SNC attempt to modify existing plans for its 15ft (10m)-long Shooting Star space cargo transport vehicle rather than going back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n
The newly-commissioned Unmanned Orbital Outpost will complement the Shooting Star project in development since 2016 for NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).<\/p>\n
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Announcing the project SNC's CEO Fatih Ozmen said in a statement: \"Were excited by the multi-mission nature of Shooting Star.\"<\/p>\n
\"It was originally developed for NASA resupply missions to the International Space Station, and since then we keep identifying new capabilities and solutions it offers to a wide variety of customers.<\/p>\n
\"The possible applications for Shooting Star are really endless.\"<\/p>\n
\"The current Shooting Star is already designed with significant capabilities for an orbital outpost and by adding only a few components we are able to meet Department of Defense needs.\"<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Steve Lindsey, Senior Vice President of strategy for SNCs Space Systems business area, who is also a retired US Air Force pilot and former NASA space shuttle commander, added: \"We are proud to offer our transport vehicle to DoD as a free-flying destination for experimentation and testing, expanding beyond its current payload service capabilities for Dream Chaser cargo missions.\"<\/p>\n
DIU first announced its interest in a solution for a self-contained and free-flying orbital outpost,\" a little more than a year ago.<\/p>\n
The small-scale space station could support space assembly, microgravity experimentation, logistics and storage, manufacturing, training, test and evaluation, hosting payloads, and other functions, the Defense Innovation Unit had said in a statement last month.<\/p>\n
'Space assembly' and 'manufacturing refer to the potential future capability to assemble and service satellites and spacecraft in orbit around Earth.<\/p>\n
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This is something both the US military and US-based space agency NASA have long desired.<\/p>\n
The outpost could consequently serve as a platform where these capabilities can be put to the test.<\/p>\n
The Air Force has also publicly raised the possibility of using orbital platforms as logistics nodes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A SNC press release said: \"The proposed orbital outpost will be initially established in LEO with guidance, navigation and control for sustained free-flight operations to host payloads and support space assembly, microgravity, experimentation, logistics, manufacturing, training, test and evaluation.\"<\/p>\n
This indicates the DIU remains interested in an orbital platform able of performing these and the other previously stated mission sets.<\/p>\n
It added: \"Future outposts may be based in a variety of orbits including, medium-Earth orbit, highly elliptical orbit, geosynchronous Earth orbits (GEO) to include GEO transfer orbits, and cislunar orbits.\"<\/p>\n
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Pentagon readies launch of its OWN manned space station - Daily Express<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US military HQ The Pentagon has commissioned the development of a space station to carry out important experimental work, as the dawn of a new space race arrives. Continue reading